Board games of various types enjoy almost universal popularity. While some board games (such as chess, checkers, backgammon, etc.) depend entirely upon the playing skills of the participants, many types of popular games involve randomizing or chance factors that are built into the play of the game. In particular, many games base the movement of the players around the board on the results of numbers randomly generated by the use of dice, spinners, etc. Many others also introduce chance factors by means of "cards" or other tokens which a player receives upon the occurrence of a random event; these cards usually provide further movement instruction, or various kinds of rewards and penalties.
In recent years, many types of board games have also included devices manipulated by the various players in a manner which tests their physical skills. For example, a game may include a set of lever operated amusement devices so that players compete in their ability to flip tokens around into various locations or goals. Such games may also combine more traditional board activities.
Yet another type of game that has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years are games which actually involve the full body, physical participation of players. These games range from so-called "living chess boards" to games where players interact physically by manipulating their body parts onto various locations of a full sized game playing surface.
Devices such as video games, arcade games, and new technology such as "virtual reality" have come into wide use both in public places and in homes all around the world. Common to most of these electronic based games is a challenge to the operator to achieve a high score; in some cases the operator has an opportunity to achieve an ultimate victory, thus "beating the game." Often, there are levels of progression which are intended to increase the degree of the challenge and entice the player to continue playing the game. Virtually all of these games allow the player to oppose a computer that operates the games so that a single individual can participate without a requirement for a second participant. Some of these games allow two or more individuals to compete against one another. This entertainment industry is a growing, booming business.
There is a trend in the electronic amusement game industry toward greater sensory involvement by the participant. The concept which has become known as "virtual reality" utilizes greater degrees of visual and audible sensory input to the participant, thus creating the illusion of an artificial, three-dimensional gaming environment.
Some major problems exist with most of these electronic games in their current form. Unlike traditional games such as chess or backgammon, they tend to involve very little mental challenge. Furthermore, they involve virtually no physical activity beyond the pushing of a few buttons or a joy stick. Thus, there are natural limitations which are inherent in this medium. The typical video game (arcade or home entertainment version) utilizes a computer which has a speaker for audio output and a color CRT for visual output. The player is forced to play the game within arms length distance. The player controls the input to the game, usually by pushing buttons or operating a joy stick; in the arcade version, these input devices are attached to the game, itself, and in the home versions by a cable.
While there are definite physical and sensory limitations inherent in the design of the typical electronic video game, there are significant advantages in that new games can be designed and produced quickly and economically because most of the development involves software design. Once the software is written, it can be loaded either directly into a computer disk drive or burned into ROM memory and inserted into the computer. Thus, both home-based and arcade-based electronic video games are relatively easy to reprogram and reformat to meet changing tastes. Because development costs are small and profitable returns realizable, there is a proliferation of electronic video games which require virtually no physical involvement by the participant.
There are only a few computer-based games that require the participant to be more physically involved. One such game is a simulated golf game which allows the participant to use golf clubs to hit a ball in the direction of a large video screen. U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,115 is representative of prior art describing this type of game. The impact on the ball when it is hit by the player feeds information to a computer, which then generates a video representation of the shot. The participant's golf skills impact directly on his or her performance which is monitored by the computer. While having the advantage of permitting true physical participation with a user-dependent outcome, simulated golf games do suffer from the disadvantage that the development and manufacturing costs of the games tend to limit their marketability, particularly because they are not affordable for home use. Furthermore, they are limited because of their inflexibility; that is, a computer-based, projection golf game will always be a golf game though software upgrades may make it possible to add variety or to enhance the appeal of the game to the end user. This inflexibility is a detraction for potential users.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 116,507 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,362), in the name of the present inventors and the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses an amusement system which attempts to overcome some of the disadvantages noted in the prior art above. The application discloses an amusement system for use by one or more participants which includes weapons which may be carried by the participants to fire objects such as paint balls or electromagnetic energy such as laser light. The participants wear sensors which generate signals when "hit" by an emission from another player. The disclosed system also includes a structure having a series of elongated passageways. Each passageway is divided by a central wall into a pair of trackways which lead from a common entrance area at one end to a gaming room area at the opposite end. A viewing area in which the activities of the participants in the gaming area may be observed is disposed adjacent to the gaming area. Sensors are disposed along the passageways and in the gaming areas to detect the positions and activities of the participants so as to provide signals which are fed to a central computer. The computer controls active displays disposed along the passageways and in the gaming area to simulate weapons and special sound and visual effects, such as explosions and the like, as well as displays which provide information to the participants as to their scores. A computer controls the playing progression of the game and generates scores based on signals from the sensors to evaluate the players.
Thus, the invention disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 116,507 does allow the participants to exercise their physical skills as they play a game, and also provides sensory output in a real, three-dimensional life size playing area. Furthermore, since the game is computer controlled, it has the ability to introduce both randomizing effects and also to provide the players a steadily increasing series of more difficult challenges. However, the system, while allowing for some variation of play by reprogramming the computer, does have the disadvantage of permitting the playing of only certain types of weapon-based games in the playing area. Thus, it is not really of interest to the many game players who dislike "shoot-em up" type games, or crave more variety in their game play.
Thus, there still exists a need for an amusement system for use in public places which combines the flexibility inherent in computerized video games, thus permitting the timely and economical development of "new games," yet includes the challenge of greater physical and mental involvement on the part of the participant. There also exists a need for games which may be played in real, three-dimensional life-sized space rather than in the confined space of a traditional board or a CRT screen, or even in the very artificial "virtual reality" of more sophisticated computer games.